


Skipping Stones

by FindYourAnchor (DustyHalo)



Series: Foxverse (Sterek Bingo 2019) [6]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Claudia Stilinski Memories, M/M, Stiles Stilinski is Seventeen Years Old, Worried Stiles Stilinski
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-24
Updated: 2019-05-24
Packaged: 2020-03-13 10:22:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18939007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DustyHalo/pseuds/FindYourAnchor
Summary: Stiles visits Beacon Hills Lake with Derek and wonders what his mother would think of who he is and what he's become.Written for Sterek Bingo 2019.Themes: The Lake and Games





	Skipping Stones

**Author's Note:**

> This one may be my favorite so far...

Stiles headed down the driveway to where Derek was waiting in his car. He'd called him to come get him since he wasn't really feeling up to driving at the moment.

“You okay?” Derek asked when Stiles slid into the passenger seat and closed the door.

Stiles didn't answer right away. He wondered for a moment if it was the expression on his face or a chemosignal that had given him away. Did he smell like remorse? Guilt? Grief?

“Stiles?”

Stiles looked up not with his name but with the hand Derek placed on his shoulder.

“Could we go to Beacon Hills Lake?”

Derek blinked at him. Clearly that was not what he had expected Stiles to say.

“Why the lake?”

Stiles picked at the sleeve of his shirt but didn't respond and Derek watched him silently. Then when it became clear Stiles wasn't going to reply Derek started the car and took them out of the parking lot. He turned left towards the lake on exiting rather than right towards downtown and his apartment.

The lake was near deserted when they arrived. A couple people walked its shores but those were the rare few.

They sat in the car for a few minutes while Stiles stared out at the lake and Derek stared at him. Finally Stiles exited the car without a word. He followed the sandy path down from the parking lot to the beach. He could sense Derek behind him. He smelled of concern. It was comforting in a strange way.

The lake was smooth like glass. Barely a ripple disturbed the calm waters and Stiles stared out at it silently. He closed his eyes and took a breath, smelling the scent of fresh water and lake plants coming in on the breeze. It smelled like a memory. Like his childhood.

“Stiles?”

Stiles opened his eyes with Derek’s voice, but rather than look at Derek he looked to the ground at his feet. He toed his shoe through the sand then moved a little ways off as he continued searching.

“Do you know how to skip stones?” Stiles asked when he found a relatively flat one in the sand and Derek shook his head when he looked over at him as he kneeled to pick it up. “My mom taught me when I was little.” He turned the stone between his fingers as he stood, feeling the grain of it against his skin. “She used to do it as a kind of game with me. Whoever had the most skips after three throws would win.”

Stiles sidearmed his stone towards the lake. It skipped across the surface five times before dropping beneath the dark waters.

When Stiles looked back he found Derek holding a stone of his own. Derek’s toss was more heavy handed. More of a chuck than a sidearm and his stone immediately plopped beneath the surface of the water.

“Here.” Stiles stepped over to Derek when he picked up another stone. “You’re not holding it right.”

Stiles positioned Derek’s fingers on the stone, getting him to hold it with his thumb and middle finger then firmly hooking his index finger along the edge.

“You’re gonna throw it more like this,” Stiles said as he demonstrated the correct way to toss with his own arm.

Derek tossed his stone towards the water. The way Stiles had showed him. This time it skipped twice before sinking.

“Better.” Stiles smiled but from the way Derek looked at him he knew it probably came across as weak.

They skipped stones for awhile. Stiles easily beating Derek in their little game of rock toss. But then he’d had much more practice than Derek had.

Towards the end of their fourth game Stiles stopped when he was about to throw his last stone. He sighed and looked over at Derek with a tilt of his head as he worried his lip between his teeth.

“I started wondering today what my mom would think of all this,” Stiles admitted quietly. “About you and me. About this whole werefox thing.”

Derek looked at him with wide eyes. His lips parting in surprise.

Stiles turned the stone he held between his fingers as he stared down at it. “Do you think she’d still love me?”

Derek closed the space between them and pulled him into a hug. His hand cupping the back of Stiles’s neck as Stiles rested his head against his shoulder.

“That's one of the hardest things, you know?” Stiles said as he hugged Derek back. The stone he held still clutched tightly in his palm. He squeezed his eyes shut and choked back the urge to cry. “I can never really know if she's proud of who I am. Or if she would even accept who I am…”

“I know. Trust me I know.” Derek let out a deep breath. “I'm sure there are things I've done that my mother wouldn't be proud of.” He added more quietly, “So many things.”

Stiles held Derek more tightly with the words.

“But the thing I remember most about my mom is that even when she didn't approve of something she still loved me.” Derek pulled back enough to look at Stiles. To tip his head up with a hand beneath his chin so their eyes met. “I don't know how your mom would feel about you being a werefox. I don't think she'd stop loving you though. Especially since she knew about the rest and didn't stop loving you.”

Stiles blinked at him. “She knew?”

“She figured it out. Sometimes moms can just tell,” Derek said. “Your dad told me she'd brought it up with him. She wanted to make sure he'd support you.”

Stiles closed his eyes as tears slipped down his cheeks. He felt a kind of relief under the ache of sadness though.

“I wish she could have met you.”

Derek swallowed hard and blinked a few times. “I know how that feels too.”

Stiles took a deep breath and let it out slowly as Derek wiped the tears from his cheeks. He pulled away from Derek a few minutes later and skipped his last stone across the lake.


End file.
